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Broke army sends SOS

FinGaz

Clemence Manyukwe Staff
ReporterDesperate ZDF struggles to pay debtsTHE Zimbabwe Defence Forces
(ZDF) has made fresh appeals for additional funding from Treasury running
into billions of dollars, as it struggles to settle its foreign debts and
replace ageing equipment, a new parliamentary report says.

The
report, by the Defence and Home Affairs committee, which was tabled last
week, paints a bleak picture of the state of the military and reveals a
deepening government financial crisis.It had been hoped that a
supplementary budget would staunch the haemorrhage on government finances,
which started around March when some of the line ministries were said to
have exhausted their budgets.The deafening silence from Treasury on the
supplementary votes could be an indication that the civil service might have
to limp through until November when Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi is
expected to present the 2008 national budget.The parliamentary committee
says the army is failing to pay its foreign debts due to a worsening foreign
currency crisis, and could find it difficult to operate efficiently in the
remaining months of the year.As a further indication of the increasingly
grave state of government finances, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa told
the Senate that he has approached Treasury to plead for his ministry to be
allowed to retain 100 percent of all revenue collected from the courts.
Currently, the ministry only gets five percent.And the Minister of
Higher Education, Stan Mudenge, last week took the unprecedented step of
tabling in Parliament a letter he wrote to Mumbengegwi, pleading for more
funds, saying that "sadly, the issue brooks no delays."But it is the
Defence report that shows the funding crisis that key government arms are
now facing. The report reveals that the army is struggling to fund the
purchase of sundry requirements, including fuel, oils and lubricants "used
for stationary and mobile equipment such as aircraft, motor vehicles, tanks,
dozers, etc."Physical infrastructure is also affected, the report
says."The ZDF has workshops, barracks, offices and runways that need to be
maintained on a regular basis. A total of $877.42 million (54 percent of the
budget for infrastructure) has been used out of an allocation of $1.63
billion. The current expenditure patterns confirm that there is urgent need
for additional funding."Some 37 percent of the $3.58 billion budgeted
for "mobile infrastructure" - such as tanks and planes - has already been
used up. "Treasury has already been approached for additional
funding."The report says the ZDF is not able to procure equipment to replace
hardware that has become obsolete or which was lost during training and
operations.The army, the report reveals, is saddled with foreign debt it is
struggling to settle. Only two percent of funds owed to foreign suppliers
has been paid this year."The effectiveness of the (Defence) Ministry
would become a daunting task for the rest of the year owing to low or
inadequate funding . . . there is great need for regular and prompt review
of the working conditions for the armed forces' morale," the Members of
Parliament warn in their report.Mumbengegwi has delayed an expected
supplementary budget, which would be his maiden budget statement
presentation. The statement had been expected this month, but will now most
likely be presented next month. The lower House resumes sitting on Tuesday,
while Senate returns a week later.However, the gravity of the funding
crisis, as reported to Parliament, suggests that Mumbengegwi's budget is
unlikely to fill the gap in any significant way.To underscore his
desperation for more funds, Mudenge also pleaded with Movement for
Democratic Change Chitungwiza Member of Parliament Fidelis Mhashu, who is
the chairperson of the portfolio committee on education, to persuade donors
to fund government universities.Mudenge said that although donors had pulled
out of Zimbabwe because of political considerations, Mhashu should try and
use "his clear persuasive ability (to convince) donors that education is a
neutral factor".In his letter to Mumbengegwi, Mudenge says: "I believe that
. . . you will seriously consider redressing some of the glaring
inadequacies in the provisions that will negatively affect some areas in
university education."Zimbabwe is enduring its worst econimic crisis since
becoming independent in 1980. Inflation, at 7 634 percent is the highest in
the world.Drought-induced food shortages and the effects of galloping
inflation have made it imperative for Mumbengegwi to table a supplementary
budget, which is likely to be bigger than the original budget presented last
year by former finance minister, Herbert Murerwa.

Czechs to close embassy

FinGaz

Staff Reporter

THE Czech
Republic is closing its embassy in Zimbabwe, citing what its foreign affairs
minister has described as the "crazy" policies of the government of
Zimbabwe.

Czech Republic foreign affairs minister, Karel Schwarzenberg,
told members of his country's Chamber of Deputies last Thursday that in
addition tothe Zimbabwean embassy, the Czech Republic would also close
embassies in Singapore and Uruguay.Schwarzenberg said the Czech foreign
Ministry would save 120 million crowns annually (more than US$5.8 million
dollars) and would retrench 50 employees as a result of the closure of the
diplomatic missions.The European Union (EU) slapped President Robert Mugabe
and his ruling elite in ZANU PF with targeted travel and financial sanctions
after the controversial 2002 presidential elections.But most EU
countries have continued to maintain diplomatic missions in Harare.Now,
however, Schwarzenberg says the Zimbabwe government "is somewhat crazy", and
any further activities of the Czech embassy in the southern African country
would therefore, not be effective.He said the Czech Republic would
nevertheless continuethe building of the office so it can be reopened at
a later date."With God's help, we will return there (Zimbabwe)," he
said.Schwarzenberg said thedeciding factor on the closureof specific
embassies was whether the Czech Republic needed them and whether the
embassies in neighbouring countries could take over their activities."It
would be good to have an embassy in Zambia where the Czech Republic
concentrates its development aid within Africa," he said.President
Mugabe blames Zimbabwe's economic meltdown on the targeted sanctions he
claims are part of a Western plot to depose him from power.

Ndlovu under pressure over Daily News licence

FinGaz

Clemence
Manyukwe Staff Reporter

PRESSURE is mounting on Information and Publicity
Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu over the licensing of the banned Daily News after
the Attorney General gave him a September deadline to start dealing with the
matter.

The A-G's Office, which represents the minister in all cases
brought to court in his official capacity, is said to be of the opinion that
if the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), publishers of The Daily News
and The Daily News on Sunday, went back to court to complain about Ndlovu's
inaction over the matter, government would lose the case.The A-G's
office bases its argument on a High Court judgment delivered in March by
Justice Anne-Marie Gowora, which said the Minister's failure to deal with
the matter urgently was a violation of the ANZ's rights.Sources in the A-G's
office on Tuesday said the Minister is now set to name members of a special
committee that will decide on the Daily News case.The panel would be given a
timeframe within which to deal with the matter, according to the
sources.Although Justice Gowora dismissed The Daily News' application to be
deemed registered on a technicality, she lashed out at the Information
Minister."Given the attitude displayed of the Minister, however, it is
obvious that he does not intend to put in measures or even change the
composition of the commission in order for the registration of the applicant
to be dealt with by an impartial body. Clearly this would be in violation of
the applicant's rights in terms of the Act and the Constitution," reads part
of Justice Gowora's judgment."What is, however, surprising, is that
despite the findings by the Supreme Court in 2005 . . . there has been no
effort on the part of the Minister to put in place a legal structure or
framework that would permit the application to be heard and determined by an
impartial body."Although the government had initially refused in court
papers to appoint an ad hoc committee to deal with the matter, The Financial
Gazette has previously reported that Ndlovu had accepted advice from the
A-G's office to drop the Media and Information Commission (MIC) from hearing
the matter and to appoint, instead, a committee to take over.The
exclusion of the MIC is based on a 2005 Supreme Court judgment that said the
commission's chairman, Tafataona Mahoso, who has been accused of bias, had
made remarks prior to hearing the ANZ's application that "created an
apprehension in the minds of reasonable people that justice would not be
done."

Will Zisco ever leave Parliament?

FinGaz

Clemence Manyukwe Staff
Reporter

"I MUST come to the side of ZISCO. It's a very sad story, and I
think government is partly responsible for problems that ZISCO is
facing."

This is how the Hansard of March 15, 1990, quotes late Member of
Parliament Henry Swan Elsworth as saying during a debate on ZISCOSTEEL, the
country's state owned steel maker."We do not want to remind the
honourable House that we are pumping in approximately a hundred million
dollars yearly to keep its nose above the water. This is all taxpayers'
money, and why are we doing this?"Today, 17 years after Elsworth's lament,
any MP who stands up to say the same of Zisco would still be
spot-on.Since its formation through an Act of parliament in 1942 as the Iron
and Steel Commission, the company continues to be the most hotly debated
parastatal in Parliament.The reason for the attention MPs pay to the
parastatal is easy to recognise: the worst that can happen to any company
has happened to ZISCO over the years.Some of the developments at ZISCO
in recent years have included the fatal shooting of three workers by
soldiers on August 7, 2001, during a strike, a politically charged row over
Gabriel Masanga's continued tenure as managing director, and the widespread
perception of the parastatal as an emblem of corruption, mismanagement and
inefficiency.Soon, legislators will debate whether or not to endorse
Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu's conviction by a
parliamentary committee over his evidence concerning Zisco.That debate
will only be the latest in a long history of attempts by different
parliaments to grapple with the ZISCO puzzle. And, given its history as
reflected in parliamentary records, the debate on Mpofu's conviction is
unlikely to be the last time ZISCO is mentioned in the House of
Assembly.According to the portfolio committee on Foreign Affairs, Industry
and International Trade, when operating at full capacity, ZISCO has the
potential to earn US$105 million per year - enough to bankroll the country's
fuel requirement for three months.The government has been touting a $2
billion dividend it received from ZISCO as a sign that the company is now
"at the centre of a remarkable comeback story".On its part ,the company
is flaunting the dividend payout while it is struggling with inadequate
working capital, owes 73.8 million Euro to KFW of Germany, US$47 million to
Exim Bank and Sinosure of China, and is heavily indebted to local suppliers,
especially those of coal and limestone.But the company's history and its
current state suggest the dividend payout could be nothing more than a
public relations gimmick.Its history is littered with failure. Records of
parliamentary debate show that in the 1980s,the government hired Japanese
consultants to undertake a "rehabilitation and viability" study, peddled at
the time as the panacea for the parastatal's problems. The plan did not
work. Close to 20 studies have been conducted on ZISCO in the past five
decades but successive governments have always come short on
implementation.And in the 1990s, MPs were told during a visit to the
steelworks that the refurbishment of the main blast furnace Number 4 would
effectively end the company's problems.Government has over the years
ignored advice by MPs that would have helped turn the company around. One of
the main reasons for ZISCO's dismal performance is government's inability -
or unwillingness - to deal decisively with corruption at the
company.Attempts by the Parliamentary trade committee, chaired by ZANU PF
Chipinge South MP Enock Porusingazi, to have government to furnish
Parliament with a report compiled by the National Economic Inspectorate
Conduct on graft at the firm have been ignored.Porusingazi's committee
had established that an Indian investor, Global Steel, had moved into ZISCO
with no formal agreement in place. The committee also cast doubt on the
credibility of Mpofu's testimony, saying he was "not serious" about solving
Zisco's troubles.The Global Steel debacle mirrored an earlier discovery by
the same committee, in 2001, then headed by former ZANU PF chairman for
Mashonaland West Phillip Chiyangwa, that ZISCO had bought Tswana Steel of
Botswana; but there was no documentation confirming the deal, a situation
the committee described as "strange and disturbing".This harked back to
1990, when Parliament heard that ZISCO had deposited $15 million - then a
princely sum - with a Swedish firm without a formal deal for the purchase of
equipment; as was to be repeated later with Global Steel and Tswana
Steel.The decay of infrastructure was already a concern in the 1990s.
According to parliamentary records, most of ZISCO existing infrastructure
was purchased over 45 years ago and needs to be replaced urgently.In
2001, 20 employees who received specialized training in China to operate
blast furnace Number 4 abandoned the company upon their return. When members
of the parastatal's board appeared in Parliament this year, they described
how a massive exodus of skilled labour was still a problem at
ZISCO.Senior officials say the parastatal is operating with skeleton staff,
is short of artisans and relies heavily on apprentices.So, once the dust
settles after the impending Mpofu debate, the question is: Wwhat
ZISCO-related issue will be next on the agenda for Parliament to deliberate
on?

Open door policy, Air Zim style

AN Air Zimbabwe plane flying to Nairobi, Kenya, was forced to
make a U-turn to Harare International Airport last week after the pilot
discovered that one of its doors was not properly secured.

Officials
at Air Zimbabwe told The Financial Gazette that the plane, a Boeing 737,
returned to Harare after the pilot detected the problem from the cockpit
dashboard.Air Zimbabwe spokesman, David Mwenga, confirmed the
incident."I can confirm the incident. It happened last week. It was one of
our aircraft, a B737, which was going to Nairobi via Lilongwe and Dar es
Salaam. The plane had to come back because one of its doors was not properly
sealed. The rubbers were not properly arranged so the pilot detected
something on the cockpit dashboard and had to do the right thing under the
circumstances and return to have the problem fixed."Mwenga said such
incidents were not unusual in aviation.He said: "It's not that we do not
recognise the importance of safety, but those are some of the things that
happen from time to time and you do not want to lose sleep over that."It
is not a big issue, but when such a thing happens, some instruments in the
plane detect that something is wrong and it is up to the engineer and the
pilot on board to decide what to do. But you can actually go as far as
London with such a problem."

The Salomao report: Beneath the SADC sheen

FinGaz

Rangarirai Mberi
News Editor

THE report on Zimbabwe by Tomaz Salomao, executive secretary
of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), shows that regional
opinion on President Robert Mugabe's style of economic management may not be
too different from that of his western critics.

According to the
report, details of which are only now coming to light, Salomao told SADC
leaders that the first step they must take in propping up Zimbabwe's economy
is to secure lines of credit to the country."The restoration of the
country's foreign exchange generating capacity through balance of payments
(BoP) support is crucial: however, the most urgent action that is needed to
start this process is to establish lines of credit to enable Zimbabwe to
import inputs for its productive sectors, particularly for agriculture and
foreign currency generating sectors," the report says.There is the
mandatory reference to sanctions. The western blockade, he says, has curbed
Zimbabwe's access to BoP support and shut it out of world markets."SADC
should do all it can to help Zimbabwe address the issue of sanctions, which
is not only hurting the economy through failure to get BoP support and lines
of credit, but also through reduced markets for its products. Sanctions also
damage the image of Zimbabwe, causing a severe blow to her tourist
sector."Having got the obligatory solidarity rhetoric out of the way,
Salomao gives an assessment of Zimbabwe's economic policy that could well
have been a cut-and-paste job from an International Monetary Fund (IMF)
report.According to Salomao, Zimbabwean economic policy is erratic, its
currency is trading above true value, money supply growth is out of control,
and "price distortions" are hurting the economy."Zimbabwe on her part
must continue to implement robust policies to reduce the overvaluation of
the exchange rate, to reduce the budget deficit and to control the growth of
domestic credit and money supply, which fuel inflation, and to reduce price
distortions in the economy."He says: "Equally important is the need to avoid
frequent changes in policy initiatives, which have caused uncertainties and
led to the view that the policy environment is unpredictable."SADC heads
of state accepted a recommendation by the Organ on Politics, Defence and
Security, that the region's finance ministers come up with a programme of
"specific interventions" - South African President Thabo Mbeki's words - to
help Zimbabwe. This rescue mission, according to a SADC communiqué, would be
prepared with Zimbabwe's cooperation.Whatever shape these "specific
interventions" take, the one good thing is that Salomao has acknowledged
that Zimbabwe prefers its economic policy to be random and
unpredictable.This is where SADC's rescue mission will either succeed or
fail. Either SADC convinces Zimbabwe to become more consistent, or the
rescue mission is lost in the country's renowned maze of zany policy
u-turns.Salomao's recommendations on lines of credit to Zimbabwe have not
taken into consideration the reasons why even some of the country's supposed
friends, such as Libya, have withheld further credit to the country.But
it is likely that SADC's finance ministers will, in their discussions, take
note of Zimbabwe's not-so-sparkling credit record, the ultimate result of
the country's policy inconsistencies.A decision not to back new credit to
Zimbabwe - very likely given bearish comments on such prospects by SA
Finance Minister Trevor Manuel - would therefore whittle the options
available for Mbeki's "specific interventions" down to merely giving advice
to Zimbabwe and hoping its managers see sense.It is certain that Zimbabwe
will not reject outright whatever proposals come out of the ministers' plan
- the country still needs to continue pretending it respects its
neighbours.What is less certain, though, is what proportion of these
proposals would have been adopted by the time some bright-spark, or the
Joint Operating Command, figures out that the SADC ministers'
recommendations - not likely to be too different from Salomao's liberal
proposals - are a bit too similar to other advice previously rejected for
being too free market, too imperialist, too predictable.Salomao has
couched his report in diplomatic speak, but his proposals have been heard
before.Compare Salomao's plea for Zimbabwe "to reduce the overvaluation of
the exchange rate, to reduce the budget deficit, and to control the growth
of domestic credit and money supply, which fuel inflation, and to reduce
price distortions in the economy," with the IMF's last proposal in February,
for "a comprehensive package of fiscal tightening and price and exchange
regime liberalisation".Besides, and Salomao would not have heard this
from his government contacts during his time here, removing "price
distortions", as he recommends, would cut off many of the policy makers from
the arbitrage opportunities that have brought them personal wealth and
encouraged them to continue with the "frequent changes in policy" he now
criticises.

Banks sit on huge cash piles

FinGaz

Kumbirai Mafunda Senior
Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S financial sector is sitting on huge cash deposits as
a result of non-withdrawals by corporate clients due to reduced re-stocking
caused by a July government clampdown on retailers and manufacturers to
force prices down to June 18 levels.

"With prices slashed, corporates
had to sell at reduced prices but they cannot restock now. So we are sitting
on huge amounts of deposits," a banker told The Financial
Gazette.Kingdom Bank, a subsidiary of Kingdom Financial Holdings Limited,
reported a massive growth in corporate cash deposits, but declined to give
figures."Following the price freeze, sales in all retail outlets jumped up
considerably, but now most firms are failing to restock," said Kingdom Bank
managing director Mark Woods.This has resulted in the bank sitting on
huge cash piles."We are trying to deploy them (deposits) as best as we can,"
Woods said, indicating these funds were being invested in various money
market instruments.The government launched a crackdown against the
business sector in July after accusing entrepreneurs of supporting a regime
change agenda allegedly championed by the West to topple President Robert
Mugabe's government.Other bankers confirmed that deposits had swelled
incredibly in the past three months because most companies were not
replenishing their stocks and were, consequently, leaving cash untouched in
their current accounts.

Fuel supplies could return to normal if price is adjusted:
dealer

FinGaz

Charles Rukuni Bureau Chief

A FUEL dealer says supplies could
return to normal if the government adjusts the price to $120 000 a
litre.

The government chopped the price of fuel to $60 000 a litre when
it introduced a price blitz that saw prices of most commodities being
reduced either by half or reverting to their June 18 levels.This has
seen products, including fuel, disappearing from the market. Fuel, which was
selling for $130 000 a litre at the launch of the clampdown is now selling
at anything from $300 000 a litre.The price clampdown also saw transport
operators withdrawing their buses from the roads as it was no longer viable
to operate. This has created an unprecedented transport crisis, which now
seems to have been accepted by employers as no one can tell when employees
will turn up for work because of transport problems.The supplier, who
runs several service stations in the city, said if garages were allowed to
sell fuel for $120 000 a litre, he believes things would return to normal
and could also see the black market rate of the Botswana pula and the South
African rand come down.On Tuesday the pula was selling for $42 000 and the
rand for $34 000, more than double the rate at the time of the
clampdown.Already there seems to be an easing on fuel trading. The
government backed down on the ban on fuel coupons days after announcing the
move, fearing that this would cripple most companies, civic organisations
and the diplomatic community. Most of them buy fuel in bulk from reputable
oil companies using their own foreign currency.Individuals not able to
buy fuel in bulk, especially those with relatives abroad, could also get
some relief. One of the companies that had been affected, Mukuru.Com,
announced this week that it would be resuming its fuel coupon facility on
Tuesday.This enables people to buy as little as 20 litres but at the moment
the service is only available in Harare. The company said it was planning to
expand this facility to other cities.

Mohadi sued for $4 trillion for bizarre torture

FinGaz

Njabulo Ncube
Political Editor

THE 34 Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) activists,
on whom police tried unsuccessfully to pin "terrorism" charges, are suing
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi for close to $4 trillion in a lawsuit
that exposes the bizarre nature of some of the methods used to torture
perceived government opponents.

The group is suing for unlawful
detention and claiming damages for torture suffered during three months of
detention.closed it."Our client could feel that the vehicle was being
driven although he did not know where he was or where they were taking him.
Our client found himself in the middle of the bush. They took him out of the
coffin and started asking questions about (activists) Better Chokururama,
Piniel Donga and Ian Makone, accusing our client of collaborating with the
three to cause illegal regime change in Zimbabwe," said the
lawyers.Tamborinyoka, the lawyers said, was assaulted on the feet, joints
and all over the body while being accused of peddling falsehoods by virtue
of being in charge of the MDC's information and publicity
desk."Tamborinyoka was told to make different noises resembling nocturnal
animals and birds, such as cats, to snore, bellow like a lion, hiss like a
snake, laugh like a hyena etc. The officers, one of them known as
Chimbetete, stamped on the detainees' backs."A High Court judge recently
released the activists from remand after ruling that police had fabricated
evidence to link them to a series of petrol bombings, which government
claimed were part of a terrorism campaign to destabilise the country and
oust President Robert Mugabe.The notice to sue was delivered on August 10,
to the Civil Division of the Attorney General's office.Roddie Tokwe, on
behalf of the acting director of the Civil Division, wrote to the MDC
activists on August 16 2007, confirming the notices to sue Mohadi had been
delivered to his department."We acknowledge receipt of your notice of
intention to sue, dated 7 August, 2007. We will revert to you as soon as we
get instructions from our clients," said Tokwe.The combined total of the
34 MDC activists' claim is $3.820 trillion. Of this amount, $2.210 trillion
is for damages for assault and torture, while $1.610 trillion is for damages
for unlawful arrest and detention.Court papers reveal how police removed a
corpse from a coffin and shoved an opposition activist into it. A gruesome
picture emerges of police officers forcing detainees to make animal sounds
such as hissing like a snake and trampling on their backs as they lay
prostrate on the floor - all for the law enforcement agents'
amusement.The group includes MDC elections director Ian Makone, Member of
Parliament Paul Madzore and former journalist Luke Tamborinyoka.All
state in their notices of intention to sue that their treatment while in
police custody was inhuman, degrading and violated Section 15 of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe, which protects individuals against inhuman and
degrading treatment, and international human rights conventions, such as
Article 5 of the African Charter, Article 7 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, and Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.Phillip Katsande, one of the activists, says he was shot
while hiding in the ceiling of his house. He has filed a claim for $140
billion.Katsande identifies Detective Inspector Rangwani as the officer who
shot him."As a result of the shooting and subsequent injury, our client
suffered damages for pain, shock, suffering, disability, disfigurement,
psychological trauma and loss of amenities of life in the sum of $90
billion," reads part of the notice to Mohadi from Katsande's
lawyers."The state knew that or deemed to have known that our client was
never outside Zimbabwe between 2002 and 2007. Our client did not receive the
said training on any part of the globe between December 2006 and March 2007
or at an earlier time. The charges were a way of covering up for the
cold-blooded shooting of our client."Another of the activists gives
macabre details of how he was shoved into a coffin by three police details,
whom he identified."The trio took him to a coffin, where they removed what
appeared to be a dead body. In its place, they placed him in the coffin,
which smelt of human flesh, and [item ends here. Ed]

Price blitz cuts VAT revenue by 90 percent

REVENUE from Value Added Tax (VAT) could have decreased by as
much as 90 percent over the last three months owing to the government's
price cuts, The Financial Gazette has reliably heard.

It has also
emerged that ZANU PF Members of Parliament are increasingly concerned about
the continuing shortages of essential commodities so close to a key
election, and had planned to quiz Industry and International Trade Minister
Obert Mpofu over the issue at a party caucus that had been scheduled for
last Wednesday.The meeting was, however, shelved, even though it had been
listed on the party's parliamentary caucus agenda.In an interview
yesterday, ZANU PF chief whip Joram Gumbo said the meeting with Mpofu had
been shelved "because we had not planned well. Others did not know about
it.""We wanted to get an update on how it (price blitz) is going. We have
always done that, even with Operation Murambatsvina. We do not rely on
lies," he said. Operation Murambatsvina is a large scale campaign adopted by
government in 2005 to forcibly clear slum areas across the country.Gumbo
could not say if the meeting would be rescheduled, saying this depended on
whether it "has not been overtaken by events".Senior government sources said
the recent price reviews, in which the government authorised increases in
the cost of a range of goods and services, had been informed largely by a
realisation that its coffers were being seriously depleted by the loss of
revenue.In June, government directed that all prices of goods and services
be reduced by 50 percent. Government had hoped the order would slow down
rampant inflation and win over the urban poor, but the move caused massive
shortages, and now threatens state finances."VAT feeds off a selling
economy, so government coffers have been affected. Government choked
itself."Businesspeople are not the only people who are suffering. It
(government) has also felt the pinch," a source said.VAT is a tax levied
on added value that results from each exchange. It differs from sales tax
because a sales tax is levied on the total value of the exchange.The
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority's (Zimra) legal and corporate services
commissioner Florence Jambwa, yesterday declined comment on the losses, or
to release latest revenue figures, referring all questions to the Ministry
of Finance.Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi could not be reached for
comment.But sources said the government is now mulling over proposals for
dropping even more goods and services from the current list of controlled
products, desperate to reverse the losses in revenues, and also to boost
product availability, anxious not to go into elections with shop shelves
still empty.

Old Mutual to cede 20% to staff

OLD Mutual will sell up to 20 percent of its Zimbabwean business
to staff to comply with impending empowerment legislation, officials at the
country's largest life assurer say.

Managing director for Africa,
Johannes !Gawaxab and Old Mutual Zimbabwe chief executive, Luke Ngwerume,
told a meeting of senior staff earlier this week that Old Mutual plc would
back the sale of shares to its black staff in Zimbabwe, a source said on
Tuesday.Details of how Old Mutual plans to structure the sale are
unavailable. But Old Mutual would have to find some structure to allow staff
a 20 percent stake of the company, the largest capitalised counter on the
Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE).On the open market, 20 percent of the
issued shares would cost well over $300 trillion at Old Mutual's current
share price of around $400 000.Indigenisation and Empowerment Minister Paul
Mangwana last Thursday tabled a Bill before Parliament that will require all
companies operating in Zimbabwe to be 51 percent owned by black
investors.Parliament's legal committee is now studying the Bill, and
Mangwana has said he expects it back before the House in two weeks.Old
Mutual's lead in selling stock to staff is likely to be followed by other
international companies, especially those not publicly quoted.Foreign
shareholders of listed companies would only have to sell 20 percent to pare
their shareholdings to the required level, since most already hold shares at
the ZSE-limit for single shareholders of 70 percent.However, wholly owned
companies, such as Stanbic and Standard Chartered banks, would have to sell
more.Old Mutual has the largest life assurance operation in Zimbabwe, and
also owns Zimbabwe's biggest mortgage lender, CABS, and also has controlling
interests - directly or indirectly - in a range of companies, key among them
MBCA Bank.Earlier this month, Old Mutual SA (OMSA) MD Paul Hanratty said
although Zimbabwe's contribution to group profits was no longer significant,
there was no plan to pull out of the local market."That business is not
generating good returns for OMSA any longer," Hanratty was quoted as saying.
"But there is no point in pulling out of that business, even though
conditions are extremely difficult. We have staff and customers to think
about before we make any move."This week, he said the Zimbabwe sale would
probably be similar to empowerment deals agreed with staff and black
investors in Namibia and South Africa.

Service providers setting up spy equipment

MOBILE and internet service providers (ISPs) have begun
installing surveillance equipment, in compliance with the controversial
Interception of Communications Act, the Zimbabwe Internet Access Providers
(ZIAP) confirmed this week.

ZIAP is a grouping comprising Econet's
ecoweb, TelOne's comone and Telecontract's Telconet."We are in the
process of complying. We are putting in place projects to see that we
comply," said ZIAP chairman Shadreck Nkala.Nkala declined to reveal the
costs involved in installing the equipment, or where the eavesdropping
equipment is being sourced, saying: "We do not discuss that."Industry
sources say mobile phone companies have also begun importing the equipment
necessary to give government access to data, calls and other
information.The Interception of Communications Act will establish a hub,
known as the Monitoring of Interception of Communications Centre, which
would be the sole facility through which authorised interceptions would be
effected.Heads of service providers who do not comply with the new law face
imprisonment of up to three years.Part of the Act reads: "A
telecommunication service provider is required to install hardware and
software facilities and devices to enable interception of communications and
also that the telecommunication service can store communication-related
information and how the service could be connected with the communication
monitoring centre or the manner in which information can be re-routed to the
monitoring centre.""The telecommunication service provider shall be assisted
or compensated for the assistance he or she may provide to the Authority or
the monitoring centre."The spying law says persons who are authorised to
make applications for interception of communications include the chiefs of
Defence and Intelligence, the Director-General of the President's department
of national security, the Commissioner of Police and the
Commissioner-General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

Lavish feast planned As masses go hungry

FinGaz

Personal Glimpses
with Mavis Makuni

EVERY where I look during lunch hour these days I see
hundreds of Zimbabweans eating ice cream either from tubs or cones. What is
going on here?

Have ordinary Zimbabweans suddenly developed a sweet
tooth than can only be appeased by this frozen liquid?The answer is no
great mystery. With supermarket shelves empty and most takeaway food outlets
offering virtually nothing, ice cream seems to be the most easily accessible
and affordable "food" in the Harare central business district. This is the
effect of the "price war" that the government embarked on in July when it
ordered the business sector to slash prices by half regardless of whether or
not they would be able to continue operating viably. As one cynic has
observed, the government can arbitrarily amend the constitution of Zimbabwe
as many times as it wants to suit its own agenda, but it cannot do the same
with economic fundamentals.Indeed, one does not need to be an economic or
mathematical whiz to figure out that buying an item or a commodity at, say,
$100 000 to sell it at $30 000 does not make sense regardless of the
"revolutionary" weight of the motive for requiring such a dumb thing to be
done. The result of the government-ordered economic self-mutilation was
predictably, that business establishments made huge losses and could no
longer afford to order new stocks, pay wages and other overheads, hence the
empty shelves staring back at hungry Zimbabweans all over the
country.Now there are queues everywhere for basic essentials such as bread
and milk, which become available occasionally. Faced only with rows of
packets of salt in a supermarket, a frustrated woman once asked, "Will
Zimbabweans ever be able to shop normally again?" None of the other equally
flabbergasted shoppers was in a mood to respond, so the answer, my fellow
starving Zimbabweans, is blowing in the wind.The government, which
accused the business sector of increasing prices in order to foment
discontent among the people as part of an alleged regime change agenda
sponsored by foreign powers, claimed it had no option but to intervene to
ease the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans. The trouble is that those in
government who wished to be seen as having the interests and welfare of the
people at heart wanted to impose their noblesse oblige at the expense of
others.It was simply a case of government wanting to get the credit and the
business sector paying the price. The trouble is that so far, there are no
winners in this debacle. Business establishments have been bankrupted and
some are closing down. The people are starving and if it cares to listen,
the government is not exactly getting bouquets for setting this catastrophic
chain of events in motion. It is unlikely to have won any hearts and
minds.The government, whose military-style decrees on prices sparked great
tumult was, it will be remembered, not prepared to lead by example by
announcing austerity measures of its own to reduce spending, tackle
corruption and streamline its operations and those of the perennially
loss-making parastatals. Moreover, the "price war" bore the unmistakable
marks of impunity and lack of transparency that are now a hallmark of
government practice when "price monitors" were accused of brazen looting and
other irregularities such as tipping off their friends and relatives in
advance about shops due to be "monitored" so that they could make a killing.
So much for easing the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans and thwarting "regime
change" shenanigans!And now, after causing these unnecessary disruptions
and human misery, the government appears to be quietly climbing down on the
matter. Price increases for various goods and services are being approved
regularly but whether this means a lasting solution has been found to end
the predicament ordinary Zimbabweans have found themselves in, remains to be
seen. The government, which plunged headlong into the price blitz without
any prior notice, is taking its time to reverse the damage although it knows
or should know, that the shops are empty and the people are living like
scavengers.Does anybody care? A clue is that while the empty stomachs of
millions of hungry Zimbabweans continue to rumble, plans for the biggest
banquet of the year at which the rulers of the country eat to their heart's
content are at an advanced stage. Reports in the state media give regular
updates of funds, food and beasts donated for the ruling party's annual
congress to be held in Bindura in December. A report in the August 22 issue
of a state-controlled daily describing the copious amounts of food already
pledged was enough to make millions of starving Zimbabweans salivate. The
paper reported on a fund-raising dinner at which the Mazowe district of ZANU
PF raised $1.2 billion. The ruling party was reported to have received
donations of eleven tonnes of maize meal and five cattle to provide meat
during the conference.In addition, the provincial leadership has pledged 48
cattle while Mashonaland East has earmarked 20 mombes for the same
festivities. Various individuals have pledged millions of dollars and beasts
for the same occasion. And this is just one district! With all districts
throughout the country jostling to outdo each other in terms of the size of
their donations, it is anyone's guess how much maize is being withheld from
the Grain Marketing Board.The same goes for the number of beef cattle
that are being set aside for the festivities instead of being sold to the
Cold Storage Company (CSC) at the government-decreed prices. It cannot
escape anyone's notice that these "super patriots" in the ruling party who
are making these extravagant donations of maize meal and cattle for the
congress are not thinking of making the food and beef available to the
nation to mitigate against the negative impact of the price war? When is
hoarding not hoarding?The CSC, it will be remembered, went AWOL (absent
without leave) instead of rising to the occasion after the cancelling of the
licenses of private abattoirs. As the population continues to face the
threat of diseases caused by the lack of meat protein and other nutrients in
their depleted diets, the burning question is why such a redundant entity
continues to exist at great cost to the nation when it is not fulfilling its
mandate.mmakuni@fingaz.co.zw

Too little too late

FinGaz

Comment

FINANCE Minister
Samuel Mumbengegwi was on cloud nine a week ago.

The reason:
month-on-month inflation had receded to 31.6 percent in July from 86.2
percent the previous month although year-on-year inflation had scaled past 7
600 percent from 7 251.1 percent in June.On widespread shortages caused by
the unilateral price cuts, he had this to say: As long as government
remained the overall regulator of the economy, "we will continue to
regulate."Fine, it is Mumbengegwi's democratic right to express his views
but surely, is he being honest with himself? Who is the minister fooling by
giving a rosier-than-real-picture of a clearly charging inflation dragon
that continues to push the country's once-robust economy into a basket
case?Mumbengegwi and his colleagues in government know only too well that
while the price controls can restrain inflation, as is the case at the
moment, the resultant technical "victory" is hollow if the reduction in
month-on-month inflation exists on paper only. In the meantime, the people
who are meant to benefit from the price cuts are going hungry and spending
long hours queuing for basics, which are now in short
supply.Policymakers need to be reminded that while it is their
responsibility to regulate the economy, they must be mindful of the
potentially high cost of their excesses. Essentially, regulation should
achieve fair and reasonable prices and not choke business to death while
depriving the consumer of access to basic goods and services or worse still,
creating illegal markets where the very same products fetch twice or three
times as much.A drive through the country's industrial sites used to be such
an electric experience before the twilight of the 1990s but it now serves as
a constant reminder of the ruinous nature of government's excesses in
regulating the country's economy. The puffing furnaces, squeaking conveyor
belts, whistling goods trains, roaring plants and the hustle and bustle in
between day and night shifts is gone, and all one can see now are rusting
factories operating at the barest minimum capacity.It is the same sad
story for residential areas, where infrastructure, i.e. roads, sewerage and
water reticulation pipes and public lighting are collapsing. The despair
written all over people's faces, be it in petrol queues, bread queues
etcetera, bears testimony to the suffering thrust on them by ill-conceived
economic policies implemented without much regard to their consequences,
intended or unintended. Yet the powers-that-be are quick to heap the blame
on "illegal" sanctions.There were signs last week of the loosening of
government's hard stance on prices as shown by the upward price reviews on
some products. This has since turned into the worst nightmare for the rest
of industry and commerce. While the revised prices have offered respite to
some struggling companies, it is still a case of too little too late. The
reviewed prices have since been overtaken by events and now fall short of
restoring viability.Reports suggest that those tasked with reviewing the
prices are scared that any attempts to correct them to realistic levels
might be misconstrued as part of a "regime change agenda". In order to
safeguard their jobs they would rather squeeze blood out of the ailing
industry by ignoring the numbers coming out of the various computations of
the agreed pricing models.The government should bite the bullet by making a
complete U-turn on its price blitz that is only benefiting a few individuals
and stoking the corruption fires.In certain cases, the price adjustments
have been awarded selectively to downstream industries, ignoring those
upstream, that feed on their outputs. Collapse, in such cases, is
inevitable.It is for this reason that most companies are beginning to send
distress calls, calling for the updating of their applications for price
reviews, which are gathering dust at the Industry and International Trade
Ministry.What is becoming clear though, is that the government does not have
the capacity to review prices at the speed and scale consistent with its
current policy thrust. The situation on the ground is quite desperate and
the longer it takes to correct the price distortions, the harder it will be
for government to breathe any form of life into the country's
economy.The powers-that-be should not lose sight of the famine knocking on
the country's doors as a result of the poor harvest. Because of crop
failures in the southern provinces and escalating poverty in both rural and
urban areas, more than four million people are in need of food
assistance.A combination of the drought-induced food shortages and the trail
of destruction being caused by the government's misguided economic policies
is a recipe for disaster. Misguided economic policies can also cause famine
and at the rate at which the country is going, Zimbabwe risks becoming the
first functioning democracy to suffer a famine in modern times, that is if
there is still any semblance of democracy left.After all, disasters
caused by humans, such as civil strife and economic crises now have more
impact on food security than natural disasters.

Mbeki clears air on SADC, Zim relations

FinGaz

IN his "Letter
from the President," published in the African National Congress online
newsletter, South African leader Thabo Mbeki touched on the Zimbabwean
crisis, which was discussed extensively at the Southern African Development
Com-munity (SADC) summit held recently in Lusaka, Zambia. Owing to space
constraints, we have re-organised Mbeki's letter to focus mainly on aspects
relating to Zimbabwe.

ON August 16-17, SADC, which incorporates 14 (and
potentially 15) countries, held its 27th ordinary summit meeting of heads of
state and government in Lusaka, Zambia. To emphasise its importance, the
summit meeting was attended by all the SADC heads of state and
government.(Seychelles, a member of SADC for many years, was not represented
because of a continuing discussion about the membership dues it must pay.
The Lusaka Summit, fully sympathetic to the concerns of Seychelles,
expressed its determination to do everything possible to ensure that this
island-state, geographically and otherwise part of southern Africa, resumes
its rightful place as a fully-fledged member of the development
community.)

Regional Solidarity...The Lusaka Summit Meeting focused
on the urgent task to transform the economies of our region, to ensure that
as an integrated whole, they meet the aspirations of the masses of the
people of southern Africa.In this regard, the Lusaka Summit Meeting was
exposed to what can be done. President Bingu wa Mutharika announced that
Malawi would donate 5 000 metric tons of maize each to Lesotho and
Swaziland, in the light of their food shortages, caused by drought.
President Mwanawasa also announced that Zambia had donated 10 000 metric
tons of maize to the World Food Programme (WFP) to be made available to any
SADC country in need.

The Zimbabwe EconomyThe summit meeting also
approved the urgent initiation of a process that would identify the measures
that the SADC region should take to assist in the economic recovery of
Zimbabwe. The report prepared by the SADC secretariat in this regard
says:"The restoration of the country's foreign exchange generating capacity
through balance of payments support is crucial: however, the most urgent
action that is needed to start this process is to establish lines of credit
to enable Zimbabwe to import inputs for its productive sectors, particularly
for agriculture and foreign currency generating sectors."SADC should do
all it can to help Zimbabwe address the issue of sanctions, which is not
only hurting the economy through failure to get BoP (balance of payments)
support and lines of credit, but also through reduced markets for its
products. Sanctions also damage the image of Zimbabwe, causing a severe blow
to her tourist sector."Zimbabwe on her part must continue to implement
robust policies to reduce the overvaluation of the exchange rate, to reduce
the budget deficit and to control the growth of domestic credit and money
supply, which fuel inflation, and to reduce price distortions in the
economy.Equally important is the need to avoid frequent changes in policy
initiatives, which have caused uncertainties and led to the view that the
policy environment is unpredictable."In this regard, on Monday, August
20, the Business Day newspaper published a wholly fabricated story alleging
that the SADC leaders were divided over this report, describing a discussion
at the summit meeting that never took place. This is consistent with an
unethical practice in sections of our media in terms of which they
manufacture news and information and communicate complete fiction as the
truth.The newspaper manufactured an unbridgeable "rift" resulting in a
non-existent paralysis among the leaders, arising out of the discussion that
never took place. The fact of the matter is that, acting on the
recommendation of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, (the
Organ), the SADC summit meeting accepted the report on the Zimbabwe economy,
as well as the proposal of the organ that our finance ministers, in
consultation with the government of Zimbabwe, should use the report to
elaborate specific interventions that could be made by our region.The
hostile allegation that our countries have recklessly turned their eyes away
from the problems of Zimbabwe, because of the imperatives of solidarity, has
always been nothing more than a product of propaganda, which all thinking
persons would recognise as such. The reality is that in a very real sense
the problems of Zimbabwe are our problems, in the same way that the problems
of the rest of southern Africa are problems for Zimbabwe as well. Our entire
region stands to benefit most directly from the recovery of Zimbabwe, in
much the same way as Zimbabwe benefits from the progress of the region of
southern Africa, of which it is an integral and inalienable part.The Lusaka
summit meeting reconfirmed these fundamental positions, which include
unqualified respect for the sovereignty of Zimbabwe and the right of its
people to determine their destiny. At no point will SADC and its member
states act as a super-power that has the right to expropriate the people of
Zimbabwe of their right to self-determination, as imperial Britain
did.

The SADC BrigadeUndoubtedly, one of the high points of the
summit meeting was the launch of the SADC Regional Peace-keeping Brigade.
This military-police-civilian brigade is made up of personnel drawn from 11
of the member states of SADC. It has been constituted to respond to the
challenges of peace, security and stability that face our region.At the
same time, it constitutes a component part of the African Union (AU) Standby
Force, which Africa is forming to ensure that it has the organised and
multi-skilled force to enable it to respond expeditiously to all situations
of conflict on our continent.Thus the launch of the SADC Peace-keeping
Brigade represented, in concrete terms, the resolve of our region and
continent to rely on its resources effectively to ensure peace and security
throughout Africa.It was indeed very moving to see the 11 mixed formations,
each behind its national flag for purposes of identification, assembled on
the parade grounds at the Lusaka City Airport.Nobody present at the
launch ceremony could have avoided being moved by the fact that despite the
variety of the national flags that led and identified the various
formations, all the members of the brigade marched and drilled with great
precision, responding to the commands of one commanding officer.Clearly,
here, at the Lusaka City Airport, the combined political leaders of our
region were presented with a palpable example of the readiness of our region
of southern Africa to act together, to promote African unity, to bind all
countries of our region to the cause of peace, to guarantee peace, security
and stability on our continent, and to create the necessary conditions for
the defeat of poverty and underdevelopment in Africa.

FinGaz Letters

Who will deliver us to promised
land?

EDITOR - A people, more so a nation without a vision
perishes. Today we need a visionary and inspired leadership to lead our
exodus from the "Egypt" that we are experiencing in Zimbabwe, through
suffering, poverty and oppression, to the promised land of hope and
fulfilment. Who is going to rescue us from our dire situation?In the
ZANU PF camp, the main preoccupation is holding on to power and the question
of who will succeed President Robert Mugabe. The plight of the people
doesn't feature on this agenda. The opposition is deeply divided and also
concerned about issues of power. In both cases we see people or politicians
who are self-serving and egotistic. The well-being of the ordinary people of
Zimbabwe is way down on the agenda.The kind of picture I see is of a people
engaging in tribal battles with wooden swords as the atomic bomb behind them
continues to tick. The real battle should be to save Zimbabwe from
sinking.The tactics of gerrymandering and electoral manipulation are
farcical. Such tactics of deceit do not hoodwink people who are hungry,
jobless and for whom life has become a nightmare. I think it is high time
the government learns to dialogue with captains of industry and those in
business rather than ruling by decree. That was the case with the temporary
suspension of direct fuel imports and the imposition of price controls,
making our life a real nightmare.This irrational logic of chicken soup
economics will only succeed in pushing us further to the precipice. Also no
amount of economic alchemy will help us to believe that inflation will
decrease to double or single digit figures. Inflation is out of control;
numbers don't lie. We need genuine political will, realism and focused
action so that steps may be taken to stabilise the situation.Let us take
the Southern African Development Community initiated talks between ZANU PF
and the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) seriously. Let us include civil
society groups in these talks so that they may be more representative of the
wider society. Let us "never say never" in life; let us believe that even a
spark of good will can ignite a fire and spread.Ian Smith said "never in a
thousand years"; but he was made to swallow his words and was dethroned from
his proud seat. There is nothing like an eternal enemy/opposition in
politics. ZANU PF and the MDC should take a cue from the peace process
taking place in Northern Ireland. Whoever imagined that Ian Paisley, not too
long ago a British sectarian bigot and Martin McGuiness, former commander of
the Irish Republican Army, would agree to sit at the table and share power
in the Assembly Executive. The impossible has happened in Northern Ireland,
and it can also happen in Zimbabwe. This is clearly an example of how even
intractable conflicts can be brought to an end through the negotiation
process.Jesus said, "With God all things are possible". We must believe that
the impossible can happen in Zimbabwe today. Ultimately, no matter how long
it takes, we have to learn to listen to each other, tolerate each other's
genuine views and to express our deepest desires in a new social and
political dispensation where we are all winners and where there are no
losers.

EDITOR
- It is fair that the children of ministers are being deported. If there is
nothing wrong in Zimbabwe, then the ministers should be happy to have their
children in Zimbabwe. They should taste their own medicine!They are the same
people who are looting the little available foreign currency at discounted
rates, spoiling their children abroad to live as though they own
Zimbabwe.I salute all governments that are deporting all these beneficiaries
of ill-gotten wealth!

DennyAustralia----------- Sanctions
busting

EDITOR - Seeing President Robert Mugabe is having so
much difficulty keeping Zimbabwe's head above water with the rigid Western
sanctions he believes have been imposed on Zimbabwe, perhaps he could glean
some ideas from those Rhodesia Front officials who may still be alive on how
to run a country under sanctions.Not only did the country survive but it
thrived, even in a war situation.

Dave LeighSouth
Africa-------- Biti misses point

EDITOR - The input
from Tendai Biti to have more mobile units to register voters sounds very
noble at face value but looking at the last elections, it is a very naive
suggestion. What the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) lacks is not the
number of registered voters in urban areas but across the whole spectrum. I
will bet my last pound that if there were 10 voters registered in urban
areas, the MDC will win still all those seats.Mr Biti you need to be able to
go into all constituences and make your agenda known to the people so that
they can vote for you. The government has already done its bit by
registering the people in rural areas for you. Start campaigning now as the
environment is ripe. With all these shortages and all this desperation the
government is displaying, if you are what we used to think you are you can
pull a good one buddy.

PasiUnited Kingdom-------- SADC
leaders not so stupid

EDITOR - I once said it and wish to say
it again that this bunch of Southern African Development Community (SADC)
leaders are selfish and we will never get any help from them.In fact,
South African President Thabo Mbeki wants our cheap labour for the World Cup
and no one can see through him. Maybe, we will see some action from him
after the World Cup is over.Think of the massive construction of roads,
bridges, stadiums and hotels. Where do you think all that labour is coming
from? He (Mbeki) is not as silly as we think he is. He is actually
benefiting from the skills flight and all the company relocations to South
Africa. He has the World Cup in mind, hence his reluctance to do anything
about the Zimbabwean crisis.All the other SADC countries will also benefit
because all the investment that is supposed come to Zimbabwe is going to
them. You will actually find that the Zambian side of the Victoria Falls
will have thousands of people visiting it during the World Cup.Do you
think the Mwanawasas of this world cannot see this windfall? Is he willing
to share this windfall with
Zimbabwe?

TariroHarare---------- Doing the wrong thing all
the time

EDITOR - The report that Dorowa Mine, Iron Duke mine
and Zimphos were closed last month due to power cuts and non- availability
of various raw materials spells disaster for the production of food this
coming season.Zimbabweans have learned to rationalise around problems and
instead of calling a spade a spade, we call it 'agricultural implement'.
What has happened at these companies is nothing other than total failure by
the government and should not be called challenges. If it was a challenge,
Chemplex Corporation would get around the power cuts. It is not a challenge
to them; it is not failure by ZESA, but by government. ZESA does not operate
in isolation outside what is happening in the country. Can we expect ZESA to
perform when no other entity is able to? Problems in this country do not lie
with individual entities, but with the way the country has been
governed.When this same government used to care, it was able to pump water
from Darwendale dam into Serui river. This water then gravitated into Mufure
river and saved Chegutu. The government drilled numerous boreholes in the
Nyamandlovu Aquifer and saved Bulawayo. The government laid pipes from the
Pungwe river to Smallbridge dam and saved Mutare. I can give more examples;
all this was in 1992.Now, there is hardly a city with sufficient water.
The Sunday Mail reported that nearly every township in Harare has no water.
It's the same in Gweru. Bulawayo is a disaster with Minister Munacho Mutezo
boasting that nothing will be done by government until the Bulawayo City
Council hands over water distribution to the Zimbabwe National Water
Authority.I must come back to Dorowa and others. If this problem, not
challenge, had been highlighted at the beginning of the year, there would
have been time to try and do something. The country will remember that when
the power cuts started to get bad, and that was at the beginning of May, we
were all told not to worry as we would have sufficient wheat as the power
was going to wheat producers. Ask wheat producers how much power they have
been getting. I happen to be one of them.I am sure that the management
of Dorowa Mine, Iron Duke and Zimphos have loads of correspondence to
government about the impending disaster. Closing the companies was a last
resort for them. What should have been done was to use the little foreign
currency properly and import power from SNEL, Eskom and Mozambique. Instead,
fleets and fleets of the latest vehicles have been imported to please a few
powerful people in ZANU PF.God Almighty, in His divine impartiality, will
pour sufficient rain this season, which by the way, starts in eight weeks.
Those farmers who got tractors are raring to go, so we are told.Only 160
000 tonnes against a national requirement of 600 000 tonnes of fertiliser
have been produced. There is no more production. Even if something was done
now there will still be a shortfall of more than 50 percent. It is common
knowledge that compounds are required at planting.With all crops, the best
planting time is extremely limited. You miss that, you are finished, at
least for that year. Every day counts and lost opportunity can only be
remedied the following year. For example, the bulk of our tobacco is
irrigated. Seedlings are put in very early in the year. The planting is at
the beginning of September. If the planting is delayed, that will have an
adverse effect on both the size and quality of that tobacco crop.It was
reported by farmers in the Herald this week that there is no compound C
fertiliser, which they need for planting tobacco. Dorowa mine is not
producing phosphate. Compond C comes from phosphate. Tobacco planting starts
next week.I can see these closures spilling to Sable Chemical as their
production of ammonium nitrate requires phosphate. The problem will also
spill to Windmill and Zimbabwe Fertiliser Corporation.The long and short
of what I am trying to say is that there will not be enough food produced
next year since we cannot turn back the clock. It appears to me that one of
the greatest shortcomings in this government is the inability to sit down
and plan ahead. No, I am wrong; the government is able to plan how to do the
wrong thing all the time.